Xamarin

Test Xamarin.Forms bugfixes by downloading PR NuGet packages

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As part of the Xamarin.Forms open-source nature the builds are also accessible for you to see. While the advantages are more than one, two really stand out. First, as a contributor, you can now see how your changes integrate with the rest of the code. Second, as a user, you can access the artifacts of … Read more

My First Challenge: Join the Xamarin + Cognitive Services Crazy Combo Challenge!

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The “challenge” concept has been around for a few years now at Microsoft. Basically what happens is Microsoft provides you with a pre-built solution in the form of some sample application. From there it is up to you to let your mind go free and implement more awesome things. This challenge is no different, apart … Read more

Databinding Scope in Xamarin.Forms

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A question I have seen coming by a lot is: how to trigger a command from the ContextAction on an item in the ListView. While it seems straight-forward, implementation can be a bit tricky. This has everything to do with the databinding scope. This post will give you some background and show you how it’s … Read more

Custom Vision, Xamarin.Forms and Simpsons – The Community AI Show

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This week I had the honor of being the first guest on the Community AI Show with Henk Boelman, Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. In this first episode we look at how we can use Azure Custom Vision in a Xamarin.Forms app.

Custom Vision Simpsons Recognition

Our demo app can recognize Simpson themed LEGO figures. The model is trained through Azure Custom Vision. From there, you can either communicate with the available REST APIs, or export the model to CoreML, TensorFlow or ONNX.

These models can then be loaded into iOS, Android or UWP respectively. Because these models reside on your device locally, you do not need an internet connection and the results return super fast!

Watch Henk and me have some fun while building this solution in the video below. You will learn how to train your model, the global structure of a Xamarin.Forms app and what routes you can take to use this platform-specific feature in a Forms app.

Spoiler alert: use this amazing plugin by Jim Bennett to make your life a lot easier.

Custom Vision, Xamarin and Simpsons - The Community AI Show

All the source code for this app can be found on my GitHub page. If you want to get started with Custom Vision yourself, go and check out customvision.ai.

More Resources

If you can’t get enough of all the AI goodness, I have also recorded a video course on the Azure Cognitive Services and how to use those. You can find that here.

On my YouTube channel you can also find a session where I incorporate the Cognitive Services in a Xamarin.Forms app. While you are there, don’t forget to like and subscribe!

In Closing

Please let me know what you think of my appearance in the AI show or all the other resources mentioned in this post. If you need any clarification on anything mentioned in this post, I’m planning to write some more extensive posts about using the CoreML and TensorFlow models in your Xamarin app. Reach out if there are specific things you want to read in there.

Experimental Flags in Xamarin.Forms

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The other day someone approached me with a problem using the experimental flags. This question triggered me to write a quick post on the why of these flags and how to use them. I have already written some posts about the CarouselView and two about SwipeView. At the time of writing, these controls are behind … Read more

Using the Xamarin.Forms Nightly Feed

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Whether you want to check out the latest and greatest features, or see if that bug you reported got fixed. There are a number of good reasons to check out the Xamarin.Forms Nightly Feed. In this post you will learn what the nightly feed is exactly and how you can use it yourself. What is … Read more

SwipeView Interaction with Xamarin.Forms

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On the Xamarin.Forms repository an issue was opened that requested an example on how to use SwipeView in CollectionView. Of course, I’m happy to explain. But I would hate to have that knowledge limited to just that issue. That’s why I’m writing this post about it so you can learn from it too! The SwipeView … Read more

SwipeView: Swipe All the Things in Xamarin.Forms 4.4

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In the 4.4 release of Xamarin.Forms a couple of experimental controls were added. One of which is SwipeView. With SwipeView you are able to make controls swipe-able and put context actions underneath them. In this post, I will show you how easy it is to implement and use SwipeView in your own project. Earlier I … Read more

CarouselView for Xamarin.Forms: Scrolling into the new 4.4 version

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With the release of Xamarin.Forms 4.4 a new control was introduced; CarouselView. In this post you will learn what it’s about and how to use it. This control makes it super simple to add a scrolling view, the one you are used to from the web, to your native app. In minutes! What is CarouselView? … Read more

GIF Support now available in Xamarin.Forms

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With the new pre-release version of Xamarin.Forms that just came out, you can now use animated GIF images! Of course it is super obvious what you can do with that, in this post I will show you how! The support for animated GIF has been a long time coming, but recently the PR was cleaned … Read more